Re­gistered or bear­er bonds may be se­cured by a mort­gage:

1.

by is­su­ing a mort­gage con­tract or a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate for the en­tire series and ap­point­ing an agent for the cred­it­ors and the bor­row­er;

2.

by es­tab­lish­ing a mort­gage right for the en­tire bond is­sue in fa­vour of the is­suer and es­tab­lish­ing a mort­gage on that debt in fa­vour of the bond hold­ers.

¹Ex­cept where oth­er­wise provided by law, chat­tels may be pledged only by the trans­fer of pos­ses­sion of the chat­tel to the pledgee.

²Any per­son who in good faith takes a chat­tel in pledge ac­quires a gen­er­al li­en over it, provided that third parties do not have rights over the chat­tel as a res­ult of pri­or pos­ses­sion, even if the pledger had no au­thor­ity to ali­en­ate it.

³The gen­er­al li­en is not es­tab­lished as long as the pledger re­tains ex­clus­ive pos­ses­sion of the chat­tel.

¹A gen­er­al li­en on live­stock to se­cure the claims of lend­ing in­sti­tu­tions and co-op­er­at­ives au­thor­ised to carry out such trans­ac­tions by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of the can­ton in which they have their seat may be es­tab­lished without trans­fer of pos­ses­sion by entry in a pub­lic re­gister and no­ti­fic­a­tion to the debt en­force­ment of­fice.

²The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the keep­ing of the re­gister.¹

³The can­tons may levy fees for entries in the re­gister and the as­so­ci­ated ad­min­is­tra­tion; they de­term­ine the re­gister dis­tricts and the re­spons­ible of­fi­cials.²

A sub­or­din­ate pledge is es­tab­lished by no­ti­fy­ing the pledgee in writ­ing and in­struct­ing him or her to de­liv­er the pledged chat­tel to the sub­or­din­ate pledgee after his or her claim has been sat­is­fied.

The pledgee may only give the pledged chat­tel in fur­ther pledge with the pledger’s con­sent.

¹The gen­er­al li­en is ex­tin­guished once the pledgee no longer pos­sesses the pledged chat­tel and is un­able to de­mand its re­turn from third parties.

²The ef­fects of the li­en are sus­pen­ded as long as the pledger has ex­clus­ive pos­ses­sion of the pledged chat­tel with the pledgee’s con­sent.

¹The pledgee must re­turn the pledged chat­tel to the en­titled party where the pledge is ex­tin­guished due to pay­ment of the debt or for some oth­er reas­on.

²He or she is not ob­liged to re­turn the pledged chat­tel, in whole or in part, un­til his or her claim has been fully sat­is­fied.

¹The pledgee is li­able for the de­pre­ci­ation or loss of the pledged chat­tel, un­less he or she shows that he or she is not at fault.

²If the pledgee has ali­en­ated the pledged chat­tel or giv­en it in fur­ther pledge without au­thor­ity, he or she is li­able for any res­ult­ing dam­age.

¹If the debt­or is in de­fault the cred­it­or has the right to sat­is­fy his or her claim from the pro­ceeds of the pledge.

²The gen­er­al li­en provides the cred­it­or with se­cur­ity for his or her claim, in­clud­ing con­trac­tu­al in­terest, debt en­force­ment costs and de­fault in­terest.

¹The gen­er­al li­en en­cum­bers the pledged chat­tel in­clud­ing its ac­cessor­ies.

²Un­less oth­er­wise agreed, the pledgee must de­liv­er the nat­ur­al fruits of the pledged chat­tel to the own­er once they are no longer a con­stitu­ent part there­of.

³Fruits which are a con­stitu­ent part of the pledged chat­tel at the time of its real­isa­tion are in­cluded in it.

¹Where there are sev­er­al pledges on the same chat­tel, the pledgees are sat­is­fied ac­cord­ing to their rank.

²Rank is de­term­ined by the date on which the pledges were es­tab­lished.

Any agree­ment stip­u­lat­ing that the pledged chat­tel will be­come the prop­erty of the pledgee in the event of de­fault on the part of the debt­or is in­val­id.

¹A cred­it­or has the right to re­tain chat­tels and se­cur­it­ies which have come in­to his or her pos­ses­sion with the debt­or’s con­sent un­til his or her claim has been sat­is­fied, provid­ing such claim is due and in­trins­ic­ally con­nec­ted with the re­tained ob­jects.

²Between per­sons en­gaged in com­merce, an in­trins­ic con­nec­tion ex­ists where both the claim and the re­tained ob­jects re­late to their com­mer­cial deal­ings.

³The cred­it­or has a spe­cial li­en provided that third parties do not have rights as a res­ult of pri­or pos­ses­sion, even if the chat­tel which he or she has re­ceived in good faith does not be­long to the debt­or.

¹No spe­cial li­en may be as­ser­ted over chat­tels which by their nature are not real­is­able.

²Equally, no spe­cial li­en may be as­ser­ted where to do so would be in­com­pat­ible with an ob­lig­a­tion as­sumed by the cred­it­or or with in­struc­tions is­sued by the debt­or pri­or to or upon trans­fer of the chat­tel or with pub­lic policy.

¹In the event of the debt­or’s in­solv­ency, the cred­it­or has a spe­cial li­en even if his or her claim is not yet due.

²If the in­solv­ency did not oc­cur or be­come known to the cred­it­or un­til after trans­fer of the chat­tel, the spe­cial li­en may be ex­er­cised even if in­com­pat­ible with a pri­or ob­lig­a­tion or with a spe­cial in­struc­tion is­sued by the debt­or.

¹If the debt­or is in de­fault and fails to provide suf­fi­cient se­cur­ity, the cred­it­or is en­titled to real­ise the re­tained ob­ject in the same man­ner as a pledged chat­tel after no­ti­fy­ing the debt­or.

²Where re­tained re­gistered se­cur­it­ies are to be real­ised, the debt en­force­ment or bank­ruptcy of­fi­cial must take the ne­ces­sary steps on the debt­or’s be­half.

¹Debts or oth­er rights may be pledged provided they are as­signable.

²Un­less oth­er­wise provided, a gen­er­al li­en on debts and oth­er rights is reg­u­lated by the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the pledging of chat­tels.

¹In or­der to pledge a debt not evid­enced in writ­ing or for which only a bor­row­er’s note ex­ists, the pledge agree­ment must be ex­ecuted in writ­ing and, where ap­plic­able, the bor­row­er’s note trans­ferred.

²The pledgee and the pledger may in­form the debt­or of the pledge.

³In or­der to pledge oth­er rights, a writ­ten pledge agree­ment must be drawn up and any form re­quired for the trans­fer must be ob­served.

¹In the case of bear­er se­cur­it­ies, de­liv­ery of the cer­ti­fic­ate to the pledgee is suf­fi­cient to es­tab­lish the pledge.

²In the case of oth­er se­cur­it­ies, the cer­ti­fic­ate must be de­livered and either en­dorsed or ac­com­pan­ied by a de­clar­a­tion of as­sign­ment.

³The pledging of in­ter­me­di­ated se­cur­it­ies is gov­erned ex­clus­ively by the In­ter­me­di­ated Se­cur­it­ies Act of 3 Oc­to­ber 2008¹.²

¹Where there are doc­u­ments of title to goods, the goods may be pledged by pledging the doc­u­ments.

²Where a spe­cial war­rant ex­ists in ad­di­tion to a doc­u­ment of title to goods, pledging the war­rant is suf­fi­cient to pledge the goods, provided no­tice of the pledge in­clud­ing the amount of the debt and the ma­tur­ity date is entered on the doc­u­ment of title.

A sub­or­din­ate pledge of a debt is val­id only if the pri­or rank­ing pledgee is no­ti­fied in writ­ing of the sub­or­din­ate pledge by the cred­it­or or by the sub­or­din­ate pledgee.

¹Un­less oth­er­wise agreed, a pledge of in­terest-bear­ing debts or oth­er debts con­fer­ring peri­od­ic sub­si­di­ary be­ne­fits, such as di­vidends, is lim­ited to the cur­rent debt and the cred­it­or is not en­titled to pay­ments which have already fallen due.

²However, where such sub­si­di­ary rights are evid­enced by sep­ar­ate doc­u­ments, un­less oth­er­wise agreed, they are also covered by pledged to the ex­tent that the pledge has been val­idly es­tab­lished.

¹Pledged shares are rep­res­en­ted at gen­er­al meet­ings of share­hold­ers by the share­hold­er rather than the pledgee.

²Pledged cap­it­al con­tri­bu­tions to a lim­ited li­ab­il­ity com­pany are rep­res­en­ted in the mem­bers' gen­er­al meet­ing by the mem­ber rather than the pledgee.²

¹If di­li­gent ad­min­is­tra­tion so re­quires, the cred­it­or may give no­tice to ter­min­ate the pledged claim and col­lect the debt and the pledgee is en­titled to re­quest that such pro­ced­ures be car­ried out.

²Once no­ti­fied of the pledge, the debt­or may make pay­ment to either the cred­it­or or the pledgee, but only with the oth­er party’s con­sent.

³Where no such con­sent is forth­com­ing, he or she must de­pos­it the amount due.

¹Any per­son wish­ing to op­er­ate as a pawn­broker re­quires a li­cence from the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment.

²Can­ton­al law may provide that such li­cences are gran­ted only to can­ton­al or com­mun­al bod­ies and char­it­able or­gan­isa­tions.

³The can­tons may levy fees from pawn­brokers.

¹A li­cences is gran­ted to private pawn­brokers for a spe­cif­ic peri­od only, but may be re­newed.

²A li­cence may be re­voked at any time if the pawn­broker fails to com­ply with the pro­vi­sions ap­plic­able to his or her busi­ness.

A chat­tel is pawned by de­liv­er­ing it to the pawn­broker against re­ceipt.

¹If the pawned chat­tel is not re­deemed by the re­demp­tion dead­line, the pawn­broker may sell it at pub­lic auc­tion after mak­ing a pri­or call for re­demp­tion.

²The pawn­broker has no claim against the pledger.

¹If the auc­tion pro­ceeds ex­ceed the pawned amount, the pledger is en­titled to the sur­plus.

²Sev­er­al claims against the same pledger may be treated as a single claim for the pur­pose of cal­cu­lat­ing the sur­plus.

³The claim to the sur­plus pre­scribes five years after the sale of the pawned chat­tel.

¹Provided it has not yet been sold, the pledger may re­deem the pawned chat­tel against re­turn of the re­ceipt.

²If the pledger is un­able to present the re­ceipt, he or she is en­titled to re­deem the pawned chat­tel after the re­demp­tion dead­line provided he or she es­tab­lishes his or her en­ti­tle­ment.

³As of six months after the re­demp­tion dead­line, the pledger also has such right even where the pawn­broker has ex­pressly re­served the right to re­lease the pawned chat­tel only against re­turn of the re­ceipt.

¹On re­demp­tion the pawn­broker is en­titled to charge in­terest for the full cur­rent month.

²If the pawn­broker has ex­pressly re­served the right to re­turn the pawned chat­tel to any bear­er of the pawn re­ceipt, he or she may do so as long as he or she does not know and could not reas­on­ably be ex­pec­ted to know that the bear­er ac­quired the re­ceipt un­law­fully.

Com­mer­cial pur­chases with right of re­pur­chase are deemed equi­val­ent to pawn­brok­ing.

¹Can­ton­al law may is­sue fur­ther reg­u­la­tions gov­ern­ing pawn­brok­ing.

²...¹

¹Ef­fect­ive con­trol over a thing con­sti­tutes pos­ses­sion of it.

²In the case of ease­ments and real bur­dens, ef­fect­ive ex­er­cise of the right con­sti­tutes pos­ses­sion.

¹Where the pos­sessor trans­fers an ob­ject to a third party in or­der to con­fer on him or her a lim­ited right in rem or a per­son­al right, both are con­sidered to have pos­ses­sion.

²The own­er of the ob­ject has dir­ect pos­ses­sion and any oth­er pos­sessor has de­riv­at­ive pos­ses­sion.

Pos­ses­sion is not lost if the ex­er­cise of ef­fect­ive con­trol is im­peded or in­ter­rup­ted by oc­cur­rences of a tem­por­ary nature.

¹Pos­ses­sion is trans­ferred by the de­liv­ery of the ob­ject it­self or of the means by which the re­cip­i­ent may gain ef­fect­ive con­trol of it.

²Trans­fer is com­plete once the trans­fer­ee is able to ex­er­cise ef­fect­ive con­trol over the ob­ject with the con­sent of the pri­or pos­sessor.

Trans­fer among per­sons who are ab­sent is com­pleted on de­liv­ery of the ob­ject to the trans­fer­ee or his or her rep­res­ent­at­ive.

¹Pos­ses­sion of an ob­ject may be ac­quired without phys­ic­al de­liv­ery if a third party or the trans­fer­or him­self re­tains pos­ses­sion of it in terms of a spe­cial leg­al re­la­tion­ship.

²The trans­fer is not bind­ing on the third party who re­tains pos­ses­sion of the ob­ject un­til he or she has been no­ti­fied there­of by the trans­fer­or.

³The third party is en­titled to re­fuse de­liv­ery to the ac­quirer for the same reas­ons for which he or she could have re­fused de­liv­ery to the trans­fer­or.

¹De­liv­ery of doc­u­ments of title to goods which have been con­signed to a car­ri­er or a ware­house is equi­val­ent to the de­liv­ery of the goods them­selves.

²However, where a bona fide ac­quirer of the doc­u­ment of title to goods is in con­flict with a bona fide ac­quirer of the goods, the lat­ter has pri­or­ity.

¹A pos­sessor has the right to use force in self-de­fence against any un­law­ful in­ter­fer­ence.

²If he or she has been dis­pos­sessed of an ob­ject by force or by clandes­tine means, he or she has the right to re­cov­er it im­me­di­ately by ex­pelling the tres­pass­er from the prop­erty or, in the case of a chat­tel, by tak­ing it from a per­son caught in the act and pur­sued im­me­di­ately.

³In do­ing so, he or she must ab­stain from all force not jus­ti­fied by the cir­cum­stances.

¹A per­son who wrong­fully dis­pos­sesses an­oth­er of an ob­ject is ob­liged to re­turn it, even if he or she claims a bet­ter right to it.

²If the de­fend­ant may im­me­di­ately show a bet­ter right en­titling him or her to re­claim the ob­ject from the claimant, he or she may re­fuse to re­turn it.

³The claim is for resti­tu­tion of the ob­ject plus dam­ages.

¹A pos­sessor dis­turbed by tres­pass may bring an ac­tion against the tres­pass­er even if the lat­ter claims to be in the right.

²The claim is for ces­sa­tion of tres­pass, pro­hib­i­tion of fur­ther tres­pass and dam­ages.

¹An ac­tion for resti­tu­tion or tres­pass is only ad­miss­ible if the pos­sessor sues for resti­tu­tion of the ob­ject or for ces­sa­tion of tres­pass im­me­di­ately on be­com­ing aware of the in­ter­fer­ence in his or her rights and the iden­tity of the tres­pass­er.

²The ac­tion pre­scribes one year after the date of the tres­pass or dis­pos­ses­sion even if the claimant did not be­come aware of the in­ter­fer­ence in his or her rights and the iden­tity of the tres­pass­er un­til a later date.

¹The pos­sessor of a chat­tel is pre­sumed to be its own­er.

²Each pre­vi­ous pos­sessor is pre­sumed to have been the own­er of the chat­tel while it was in his or her pos­ses­sion.

¹The pos­sessor of a chat­tel who does not pur­port to be its own­er may in­voke the pre­sump­tion that the per­son from whom he or she re­ceived it in good faith is the own­er.

²Where a per­son pos­sess­ing a chat­tel in­vokes a lim­ited right in rem or a per­son­al right, the ex­ist­ence of such a right is pre­sumed, but such pre­sump­tion can­not be in­voked against the per­son from whom the pos­sessor re­ceived the chat­tel.

The pos­sessor of a chat­tel may in­voke the pre­sump­tion of his or her bet­ter right in any ac­tion brought against him, sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing wrong­ful dis­pos­ses­sion or tres­pass.

A per­son who takes pos­ses­sion of a chat­tel in good faith in or­der to be­come its own­er or to ac­quire a lim­ited right in rem is pro­tec­ted therein even if the chat­tel was en­trus­ted to the trans­fer­or without any au­thor­ity to ef­fect the trans­fer.

¹A pos­sessor whose chat­tel has been stolen or lost, or who has oth­er­wise been dis­pos­sessed of it against his or her will, may re­claim it from any pos­sessor with­in a peri­od of five years. Art­icle 722 is re­served.¹

^1bisThe right to re­cov­er an ob­ject of cul­tur­al her­it­age as defined by Art­icle 2 para­graph 1 of the Cul­tur­al Prop­erty Trans­fer Act of 20 June 2003², pos­ses­sion of which has been lost against the own­er’s will, pre­scribes one year after the own­er be­comes aware of where and by whom such ob­ject is be­ing held, but at the latest 30 years after the loss.³

²If a chat­tel has been sold at pub­lic auc­tion, or on the mar­ket, or by a mer­chant deal­ing in goods of the same kind, it may be re­claimed from the first and any sub­sequent bona fide pur­chaser only against re­im­burse­ment of the price paid.

³In oth­er re­spects, resti­tu­tion is sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing pos­ses­sion in good faith.

Cash and bear­er se­cur­it­ies can­not be re­claimed from a re­cip­i­ent in good faith even if the pos­sessor was dis­pos­sessed of them against his or her will.

¹A per­son who has not ac­quired a chat­tel in good faith may be re­quired by the pre­vi­ous pos­sessor to re­turn it at any time.

²However, if the pre­vi­ous pos­sessor like­wise did not ac­quire the chat­tel in good faith, he or she can­not re­claim the chat­tel from any sub­sequent pos­sessor.

¹In re­spect of land re­cor­ded in the land re­gister, only the per­son re­gistered may in­voke pre­sump­tion of title and bring an ac­tion for re­cov­ery of pos­ses­sion.

²However, a per­son who ex­er­cises ef­fect­ive con­trol over the land may bring an ac­tion for wrong­ful dis­pos­ses­sion or tres­pass.

¹A per­son pos­sess­ing an ob­ject in good faith is not li­able to its right­ful own­er for the con­sequences of us­ing it in ac­cord­ance with his or her pre­sumed right.

² He or she is not ob­liged to re­place what has been lost or dam­aged.

¹Where the right­ful own­er re­quests resti­tu­tion of an ob­ject, the pos­sessor in good faith may re­quest in­dem­ni­fic­a­tion for any ne­ces­sary or use­ful ex­pendit­ure in­curred and may re­fuse to sur­render the ob­ject un­til such in­dem­ni­fic­a­tion is forth­com­ing.

² He or she has no right to in­dem­ni­fic­a­tion of oth­er ex­pendit­ure, but where none is proffered, he or she may re­move any­thing for which he or she has in­curred cost, provided this may be done without dam­aging the prop­erty.

³Any fruits col­lec­ted by a pos­sessor are set off against his or her claim for in­dem­ni­fic­a­tion.

¹A per­son pos­sess­ing an ob­ject in bad faith must re­turn it to the right­ful own­er and com­pensate him or her for any dam­age res­ult­ing from such wrong­ful pos­ses­sion, in­clud­ing any fruits he or she col­lec­ted or failed to col­lect.

² He or she may claim in­dem­ni­fic­a­tion only of such ex­pendit­ure as the right­ful own­er would also have had to in­cur.

³As long as a pos­sessor does not know to whom he or she must sur­render the ob­ject, he or she is only li­able for dam­age for which he or she is at fault.

A pos­sessor ful­filling the re­quire­ments of ad­verse pos­ses­sion may count his or her pre­de­cessor’s peri­od of pos­ses­sion as part of his or her own provided his or her pre­de­cessor’s pos­ses­sion also qual­i­fied as ad­verse pos­ses­sion.

¹The land re­gister is kept as a re­cord of prop­erty rights.

²It con­sists of the main re­gister, the plans, prop­erty dir­ect­or­ies, sup­port­ing doc­u­ments and prop­erty de­scrip­tions ap­pen­ded to the main re­gister, and the journ­al.

³The land re­gister may be kept on pa­per or elec­tron­ic­ally.¹

⁴Where the land re­gister is kept elec­tron­ic­ally, leg­al ef­fect at­taches to such data as are prop­erly stored in the sys­tem and legible in let­ters and fig­ures or dis­played on plans by means of the tech­nic­al cap­ab­il­it­ies of the devices and equip­ment used by the land re­gister.²

¹The fol­low­ing are re­cor­ded in the land re­gister as im­mov­able prop­erty:

1.

par­cels of land and the build­ings there­on;

2.

dis­tinct and per­man­ent rights re­cor­ded in the land re­gister;

3.

mines;

4.

co-own­er­ship shares in im­mov­able prop­erty.

²The Fed­er­al Coun­cil is­sues de­tailed reg­u­la­tions gov­ern­ing the pre­requis­ites for and meth­od of re­gis­tra­tion of dis­tinct and per­man­ent rights, mines and co-own­er­ship shares in im­mov­able prop­erty.

¹Im­mov­able prop­erty which is not privately owned and is in pub­lic use will be re­cor­ded in the land re­gister only if rights in rem at­tach­ing to such prop­erty are to be re­gistered or if can­ton­al law provides for its re­gis­tra­tion.

²If re­gistered im­mov­able prop­erty is trans­formed in­to prop­erty that is not sub­ject to re­gis­tra­tion, it is de­leted from the land re­gister.

³...¹

¹Each item of im­mov­able prop­erty has its own fo­lio and num­ber in the main re­gister.

²The pro­ced­ure to be fol­lowed in the event of the di­vi­sion or con­sol­id­a­tion of im­mov­able prop­erty is de­term­ined by Fed­er­al Coun­cil or­din­ance.

¹The fol­low­ing data is entered in sep­ar­ate sec­tions on each fo­lio:

1.

own­er­ship;

2.

the ease­ments and real bur­dens es­tab­lished in fa­vour of or en­cum­ber­ing the prop­erty;

3.

the li­ens with which it is en­cumbered.

²Ac­cessor­ies may be noted on the fo­lio at the own­er’s re­quest and, once noted, may be de­leted only with the con­sent of all such in­ter­ested parties as are evid­ent from the land re­gister.

¹Two or more par­cels of land may be entered on one fo­lio with the own­er’s con­sent, re­gard­less of wheth­er they are con­tigu­ous.

²The entries on such fo­lio are val­id for all the land in ques­tion with the ex­cep­tion of ease­ments.

³The own­er may at any time re­quest that entries for in­di­vidu­al par­cels of land be re­moved from a joint fo­lio, all rights be­ing re­served.

¹Ap­plic­a­tions for entry in the land re­gister are re­cor­ded without delay in the journ­al in chro­no­lo­gic­al or­der in­dic­at­ing the ap­plic­ant and the ob­ject of his or her re­quest.

²Sup­port­ing doc­u­ments are duly clas­si­fied and archived.

³In can­tons where the land re­gis­trar is au­thor­ised to draw up pub­lic deeds, the sup­port­ing doc­u­ments may be re­placed by an of­fi­cial re­cord whose entries con­sti­tute pub­lic deeds.

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil pre­scribes the land re­gister forms, is­sues the ne­ces­sary reg­u­la­tions and reg­u­lates at its dis­cre­tion the keep­ing of aux­il­i­ary re­gisters.

²The can­tons may es­tab­lish spe­cial pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the re­gis­tra­tion of rights in rem on land un­der can­ton­al law, but such pro­vi­sions be­come val­id only when ap­proved by the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

¹A can­ton wish­ing to keep the land re­gister elec­tron­ic­ally must ob­tain the ap­prov­al of the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice.

²The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates:

1.

the au­thor­isa­tion pro­ced­ure;

2.

the scope and tech­nic­al de­tails of the elec­tron­ic land re­gister, par­tic­u­larly the pro­ced­ure by which entries be­come ef­fect­ive;

3.

wheth­er and on what con­di­tions elec­tron­ic com­mu­nic­a­tion with the land re­gister is per­miss­ible;

4.

wheth­er and on what con­di­tions the pub­lic will be giv­en ac­cess to un­res­tric­ted data re­cor­ded in the main re­gister;

5.

data ac­cess, the log­ging of re­triev­al re­quests and con­di­tions for the with­draw­al of user en­ti­tle­ments in the event of ab­use;

6.

data pro­tec­tion;

7.

long-term data se­cur­ity and data archiv­ing.

3 The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Justice and Po­lice and the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of De­fence, Civil Pro­tec­tion and Sport define data mod­els and stand­ard in­ter­faces for the land re­gister and of­fi­cial land sur­veys.

¹The can­tons which main­tain the land re­gister elec­tron­ic­ally may com­mis­sion private in­di­vidu­als to:

1.

en­sure ac­cess to the data in the land re­gister in the re­triev­al pro­cess;

2.

en­sure pub­lic ac­cess to the data of the main re­gister which can be viewed without proof of in­terest;

3.

to carry out elec­tron­ic trans­ac­tions with the land re­gistry.

²The com­mis­sioned in­di­vidu­als are sub­ject to the over­sight of the can­tons and of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

¹The entry for and de­scrip­tion of each par­cel of land in the re­gister are based on the of­fi­cial ca­das­tral sur­vey, and in par­tic­u­lar on a plan drawn for the land re­gister.

²The Geoin­form­a­tion Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 2007² reg­u­lates the qual­it­at­ive and tech­nic­al re­quire­ments of the of­fi­cial ca­das­tral sur­vey.

¹For land re­gister pur­poses the can­tons are di­vided in­to dis­tricts.

²Im­mov­able prop­erty is entered in the re­gister for the dis­trict in which it is situ­ated.

¹Im­mov­able prop­erty that lies in more than one dis­trict is entered in the re­gister of each dis­trict, with ref­er­ence be­ing made to the re­gister of the oth­er dis­tricts.

²Entries which es­tab­lish rights are to be made in the re­gister of the dis­trict in which the largest part of the prop­erty is situ­ated.

³Entries in this land re­gister will be no­ti­fied by the re­gis­trar to the oth­er land re­gis­tries.

¹The can­tons are re­spons­ible for set­ting up the land re­gis­tries, the de­marc­a­tion of the dis­tricts, the ap­point­ment and re­mu­ner­a­tion of of­fi­cials and su­per­vi­sion ar­range­ments.

²The reg­u­la­tions is­sued by the can­tons, save for those con­cern­ing the ap­point­ment and re­mu­ner­a­tion of of­fi­cials, are sub­ject to ap­prov­al by the Con­fed­er­a­tion.¹

¹The can­tons may levy fees for entry in the land re­gister and for the ne­ces­sary sur­veys.

²No charge may be made for entries re­lat­ing to land im­prove­ments or to land ex­changes for the pur­pose of ag­ri­cul­tur­al con­sol­id­a­tion.

¹The can­tons are li­able for any dam­age arising from the main­ten­ance of the land re­gister.

²They have a right of re­course against the land re­gister of­fi­cials and em­ploy­ees and against the im­me­di­ate su­per­vis­ory bod­ies if they are at fault.

³They may re­quire the of­fi­cials and em­ploy­ees to provide se­cur­ity.

¹The man­age­ment of the land re­gis­tries is sub­ject to the ad­min­is­trat­ive su­per­vi­sion of the can­tons.

²The Con­fed­er­a­tion ex­er­cises the su­per­vis­ory con­trol.

¹A rul­ing is­sued by the land re­gistry may be con­tested be­fore an au­thor­ity des­ig­nated by the can­ton; a rul­ing in­cludes the un­law­ful re­fus­al to carry out or delay in car­ry­ing out an of­fi­cial act.

²The fol­low­ing per­sons are en­titled to ap­peal:

1.

any per­son who suf­fers par­tic­u­lar pre­ju­dice due to a rul­ing is­sued by the land re­gistry and who has a le­git­im­ate in­terest in its re­voc­a­tion or amend­ment;

2.

the can­ton­al ad­min­is­trat­ive su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity it has a right of ap­peal un­der can­ton­al law;

3.

the fed­er­al su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity.

³No ap­peal may be brought against an entry, amend­ment or de­le­tion of rights in rem or pri­or­ity no­tices ex­ecuted in the main re­gister.

¹The peri­od with­in which an ap­peal to the can­ton­al ap­pel­late au­thor­it­ies must be filed amounts to 30 days.

²Where the land re­gistry re­fuses to carry out or delays in car­ry­ing out a spe­cif­ic of­fi­cial act, however, an ap­peal may be filed at any time.

The fol­low­ing rights to im­mov­able prop­erty are re­cor­ded in the land re­gister:

1.

own­er­ship;

2.

ease­ments and real bur­dens;

3.

li­ens.

¹Per­son­al rights may be entered un­der pri­or­ity no­tice in the land re­gister where such no­tices are ex­pressly provided for by law, as is the case for a right of pre-emption, right of re­pur­chase, right of pur­chase, usu­fructu­ary lease and ten­ancy.

²By vir­tue of be­ing entered un­der pri­or­ity no­tice, they may be in­voked against any rights sub­sequently ac­quired.

¹Re­stric­tions on powers of dis­pos­al may be entered un­der pri­or­ity no­tice for in­di­vidu­al par­cels of land if they res­ult from:

1.

an of­fi­cial or­der made to se­cure dis­puted or en­force­able claims;

2.¹

a dis­traint or­der;

3.²

a case in which entry un­der pri­or­ity no­tice is en­vis­aged by law, such as a re­main­der­man’s ex­pect­ancy.

²On entry un­der pri­or­ity no­tice, the re­stric­tions on powers of dis­pos­al be­come ef­fect­ive against all sub­sequently ac­quired rights.

¹Pro­vi­sion­al entries may be made in the land re­gister:

1.

in or­der to se­cure as­ser­ted rights in rem;

2.

in the cases where the law per­mits the ap­plic­ant to com­plete his or her ap­plic­a­tion.

²They are made either with the con­sent of all in­ter­ested parties or by court or­der and the right, provided it is later con­firmed, be­comes ef­fect­ive in rem as of the date of the pro­vi­sion­al entry.

³The court rules on the ap­plic­a­tion and, provided the ap­plic­ant sat­is­fies the court of his or her en­ti­tle­ment, ap­proves the pro­vi­sion­al entry, pre­cisely spe­cify­ing its nature, dur­a­tion and ef­fect and, where ne­ces­sary, set­ting a time lim­it with­in which the ap­plic­ant must bring an ac­tion to as­sert his or her rights.¹

A pri­or­ity no­tice in the land re­gister does not pre­clude the re­gis­tra­tion of a right with a sub­or­din­ate rank.

¹The state au­thor­ity or an­oth­er pub­lic body must ar­range for a pub­lic law re­stric­tion on own­er­ship ordered in re­spect of a spe­cif­ic prop­erty that im­poses a per­man­ent re­stric­tion on use or power of dis­pos­al or duty re­lat­ing to the prop­erty on the own­er to be noted in the land re­gister.

²Where the re­stric­tion on own­er­ship ceases to ap­ply, the state au­thor­ity or the oth­er pub­lic body must ar­range for the note to be de­leted from the land re­gister. If the state au­thor­ity or the oth­er pub­lic body fails to act, the land re­gister may de­lete the note ex of­fi­cio.

³The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall stip­u­late the areas of can­ton­al law in which re­stric­tions on own­er­ship must be noted in the land re­gister. The can­tons may provide for ad­di­tion­al notes. They shall draw up a list of cir­cum­stances re­quir­ing a note, which must be passed on to the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

The fol­low­ing may be noted in the land re­gister:

1.

the stat­utory rep­res­ent­at­ive at his or her re­quest or at the re­quest of the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity;

2.

the es­tate ad­min­is­trat­or, the rep­res­ent­at­ive of the heirs, the of­fi­cial li­quid­at­or and the ex­ecut­ors at their re­quest or at the re­quest of the heirs or the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity;

3.

the rep­res­ent­at­ive of an own­er, charge cred­it­or or ease­ment be­ne­fi­ciary whose where­abouts are un­known at his or her re­quest or at the re­quest of the court;

4.

the rep­res­ent­at­ive of a leg­al en­tity or oth­er rights hold­er in the ab­sence of the re­quired man­age­ment body at his or her re­quest or at the re­quest of the court;

5.

the ad­min­is­trat­or of a con­domin­i­um as­so­ci­ation at his or her re­quest or at the re­quest of the con­domin­i­um own­ers meet­ing or of the court.

¹Entries in the land re­gister are based on a writ­ten de­clar­a­tion by the own­er of the im­mov­able prop­erty to which the entry relates.

²No de­clar­a­tion by the own­er is re­quired where the ac­quirer may rely on a pro­vi­sion of the law, a fi­nal court judg­ment or a doc­u­ment hav­ing ef­fect equal to that of a court judg­ment.

³The of­fi­cials au­thor­ised to ex­ecute pub­lic deeds may be in­struc­ted by the can­tons to no­ti­fy the trans­ac­tions cer­ti­fied by such deeds for entry in the land re­gister.

¹Amend­ment or de­le­tion of an entry in the land re­gister re­quires an de­clar­a­tion in writ­ing by the per­son whose en­ti­tle­ment res­ults from the entry.

²Such ap­plic­a­tion may be made by sign­ing the journ­al.

¹A dis­pos­i­tion in the land re­gister, such as an entry, amend­ment or de­le­tion, may be made only on the basis of doc­u­ments es­tab­lish­ing the right to make such dis­pos­i­tion and its leg­al basis.

²Au­thor­ity to re­quest a dis­pos­i­tion is es­tab­lished by proof that the ap­plic­ant is the per­son en­titled by vir­tue of the entry in the land re­gister or has been duly ves­ted with a power of at­tor­ney by said per­son.

³The leg­al basis for the re­ques­ted dis­pos­i­tion is es­tab­lished by proof that the form­al re­quire­ments have been ob­served.

¹Where the doc­u­ment­a­tion re­quired for a dis­pos­i­tion in the land re­gister is not forth­com­ing, the ap­plic­a­tion is re­jec­ted.

²However, provided the leg­al basis is es­tab­lished and the ap­plic­a­tion lacks only cer­tain doc­u­ments, a pro­vi­sion­al entry may be made with the own­er’s con­sent or by court or­der.

¹The entries in the main re­gister are made in the or­der in which ap­plic­a­tions are re­ceived or in which cer­ti­fic­a­tions and de­clar­a­tions are signed by the land re­gis­trar.

²In­ter­ested parties will be provided on re­quest with an ex­tract of the entry.

³The form­al re­quire­ments for entries, de­le­tions and ex­tracts are reg­u­lated by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

Ease­ments are entered and de­leted on the fo­li­os of both the dom­in­ant and ser­vi­ent prop­er­ties.

¹The re­gis­trar must no­ti­fy in­ter­ested parties of all dis­pos­i­tions in the land re­gister made without their know­ledge; he or she shall, in par­tic­u­lar, no­ti­fy any ac­quis­i­tion of own­er­ship by a third party to parties with rights of pre-emption which are entered un­der pri­or­ity no­tice in the land re­gister or to parties with rights which ex­ist by law and are evid­ent from the land re­gister.¹

²The time lim­it for chal­len­ging such dis­pos­i­tions be­gins on re­ceipt of such no­ti­fic­a­tion.

¹Any per­son show­ing a le­git­im­ate in­terest is en­titled to con­sult the land re­gister or to be provided with an ex­tract.

²A per­son is en­titled to ob­tain the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion from the main re­gister without show­ing a le­git­im­ate in­terest:

1.

the name and de­scrip­tion of the im­mov­able prop­erty;

2.

the name and iden­tity of the own­er;

3.

the form of own­er­ship and the date of ac­quis­i­tion.

³The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify oth­er par­tic­u­lars of ease­ments, real bur­dens and no­tices in the re­gister which may be made pub­lic without the need to show a le­git­im­ate in­terest. It shall pay due re­gard to the pro­tec­tion of per­son­al pri­vacy.

⁴An ob­jec­tion based on ig­nor­ance of a land re­gister entry is in­ad­miss­ible.

¹The can­tons may provide that all ac­quis­i­tions of im­mov­able prop­erty be pub­lished.

²They may not pub­lish the con­sid­er­a­tion in­volved in a di­vi­sion of es­tate, an ad­vance against a per­son’s share of an in­her­it­ance, a mar­it­al agree­ment or a li­quid­a­tion of mar­it­al prop­erty.

¹Where the es­tab­lish­ment of a right in rem is sub­ject to entry in the land re­gister, such right has ef­fect in rem only if it has been entered.

²With­in the lim­its of such entry, the scope of a right may be es­tab­lished by sup­port­ing doc­u­ments or in some oth­er man­ner.

¹Rights in rem are es­tab­lished and as­signed their rank and date by vir­tue of be­ing entered in the main re­gister.

²The entry has ret­ro­act­ive ef­fect as of its re­cord­ing in the journ­al, provided the sup­port­ing doc­u­ments re­quired by law are in­cluded with the ap­plic­a­tion or, in the case of pro­vi­sion­al entries, are sub­mit­ted in good time.

³In can­tons where the re­gis­trar draws up pub­lic deeds by means of an entry in an of­fi­cial re­cord of title, such a re­cord con­sti­tutes entry in the journ­al.

¹ Any per­son who, re­ly­ing in good faith on an entry in the land re­gister, has ac­quired prop­erty or any oth­er right in rem in re­li­ance there­on, is pro­tec­ted in such ac­quis­i­tion.

²This rule does not ap­ply to bound­ar­ies of land in areas des­ig­nated by the can­tons as be­ing in per­man­ent danger of ground dis­place­ment.¹

¹If the entry of a right in rem is un­war­ran­ted, a third party who is or ought to be aware there­of may not rely on the entry.

²An entry is un­war­ran­ted if it is without leg­al basis or was made on the basis of an in­val­id trans­ac­tion.

³A per­son whose rights in rem are in­fringed by such an entry may in­voke its de­fect­ive­ness dir­ectly against the third party act­ing in bad faith.

¹If a prop­erty is di­vided, the ease­ments, pri­or­ity no­tices and notes for each di­vided part must be re­vised.

²The own­er of the prop­erty be­ing di­vided must ad­vise the land re­gistry which entries to de­lete and which to trans­fer to the di­vided parts. If this is not done, the ap­plic­a­tion must be re­jec­ted.

³Where an entry ac­cord­ing to the sup­port­ing doc­u­ments or the cir­cum­stances does not re­late to a di­vided part, it must be de­leted. The pro­ced­ure is gov­erned by the reg­u­la­tions on the de­le­tion of an entry.

¹Two or more par­cels of land be­long­ing to one own­er may only be con­sol­id­ated if no mort­gage rights or real bur­dens have to be trans­ferred from the in­di­vidu­al par­cels to the con­sol­id­ated prop­erty or if the cred­it­or con­sents.

²If ease­ments, pri­or­ity no­tices or notes en­cum­ber­ing the prop­erty must be re­cor­ded, they may be con­sol­id­ated only if the be­ne­fi­ciar­ies con­sent or if their rights are not pre­ju­diced due to the nature of the en­cum­brance.

³If ease­ments, pri­or­ity no­tices or notes be­ne­fit­ing the prop­erty real es­tate must be re­cor­ded, they may only be con­sol­id­ated if the own­er of the ser­vi­ent prop­erty con­sents or if the en­cum­brance is not in­creased by con­sol­id­a­tion.

⁴The pro­vi­sions on re­vi­sion on the di­vi­sion of prop­erty ap­ply by ana­logy.

¹Where an entry of a right in rem is un­war­ran­ted or a cor­rect entry has been de­leted or mod­i­fied in an un­war­ran­ted man­ner, any per­son whose rights in rem are thereby in­fringed may bring an ac­tion for de­le­tion or amend­ment of the entry.

²Rights in rem ac­quired in good faith by third parties re­ly­ing on the entry and claims for dam­ages are re­served.

The land re­gister may de­lete an entry ex of­fi­cio if the entry:

1.

is lim­ited in time and has lost its leg­al sig­ni­fic­ance as it has ex­pired;

2.

relates to a non-as­signable or non-her­it­able right of a de­ceased per­son;

3.

can­not af­fect the prop­erty due to the loc­al situ­ation;

4.

relates to a prop­erty that no longer ex­ists.

¹If an entry in all prob­ab­il­ity has no leg­al im­port­ance, in par­tic­u­lar be­cause ac­cord­ing to the sup­port­ing doc­u­ments or the cir­cum­stances it does not re­late to the prop­erty, then any per­son en­cumbered may re­quest its de­le­tion.

²If the land re­gistry re­gards the re­quest as jus­ti­fied, it shall in­form the be­ne­fi­ciary that it will de­lete the entry un­less he or she files an ob­jec­tion with land re­gistry with­in 30 days.

¹If the be­ne­fi­ciary files an ob­jec­tion, the land re­gistry shall re­as­sess the re­quest for de­le­tion at the re­quest of the en­cumbered per­son.

²If the land re­gistry con­cludes that the re­quest should be gran­ted des­pite the ob­jec­tion, it shall no­ti­fy the be­ne­fi­ciary that it will de­lete the entry from the main re­gister un­less the be­ne­fi­ciary brings a court ac­tion to de­clare that the entry is of leg­al sig­ni­fic­ance.

¹If con­di­tions have changed in fact or law in a spe­cif­ic area and as a res­ult a large num­ber of ease­ments, pri­or­ity no­tices or notes have com­pletely or largely lapsed or if the situ­ation can no longer be de­term­ined, the au­thor­ity des­ig­nated by the can­ton may or­der a re­vi­sion in this area.

²This or­der must be noted in the cor­res­pond­ing land re­gister fo­li­os.

³The can­tons shall reg­u­late the de­tails and the pro­ced­ure. They may fur­ther sim­pli­fy the re­vi­sion pro­ced­ure or is­sue reg­u­la­tions that de­vi­ate from fed­er­al law.

¹Un­less the in­ter­ested parties con­sent in writ­ing, the land re­gis­trar may cor­rect the re­gister only in ac­cord­ance with a court or­der.

²In­stead of cor­rect­ing an un­war­ran­ted entry, the re­gis­trar may de­lete it and make a new one.

³The land re­gis­trar may cor­rect ty­po­graph­ic­al er­rors of his or her own ac­cord in ac­cord­ance with reg­u­la­tions to be is­sued by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

¹When this Code comes in­to force, the leg­al ef­fects of cir­cum­stances which oc­curred pre­vi­ously re­main sub­ject to those pro­vi­sions of fed­er­al or can­ton­al law which were ap­plic­able when the cir­cum­stances oc­curred.

²Ac­cord­ingly, the leg­ally bind­ing nature and con­sequences of acts which took place be­fore the com­mence­ment here­of re­main sub­ject to the law which was ap­plic­able at the time.

³However, cir­cum­stances oc­cur­ring after the com­mence­ment here­of are sub­ject to the new law, un­less this Code provides oth­er­wise.

¹The pro­vi­sions of this Code spe­cific­ally en­acted in the in­terests of pub­lic policy and good mor­als ap­ply when it comes in­to force to all cir­cum­stances, un­less this Code provides oth­er­wise.

²Ac­cord­ingly, pro­vi­sions of the pre­vi­ous law which un­der the new law are deemed to con­tra­vene pub­lic policy and good mor­als cease to ap­ply when the new law comes in­to force.

When this Code comes in­to force, leg­al re­la­tion­ships whose con­tent is defined by law ir­re­spect­ive of the will of the parties con­cerned are sub­ject to the new law, even if pre­vi­ously such re­la­tion­ships were val­id.

The leg­al ef­fects of cir­cum­stances which oc­curred while the pre­vi­ous law was still in force and which en­joy no pro­tec­tion un­der the new law are sub­ject to the lat­ter once it has come in­to force.

¹Ca­pa­city to act shall be as­sessed in all cases in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of this Code.

²However, any per­son who has the ca­pa­city to act un­der the pre­vi­ous law when this Code comes in­to force but who would not have the ca­pa­city to act un­der the new law will also be re­cog­nised as hav­ing the ca­pa­city to act when this Code comes in­to force.

¹The de­clar­a­tion of pre­sumed death be­comes sub­ject to the new law when this Code comes in­to force.

²When this Code comes in­to force, de­clar­a­tions of death or ab­sence un­der the pre­vi­ous law have the same ef­fects as a de­clar­a­tion of pre­sumed death un­der the new law, but the con­sequences that have oc­curred un­der the pre­vi­ous law pri­or to this Code com­ing in­to force, such as suc­ces­sion or dis­sol­u­tion of mar­riage, re­main val­id.

³Pro­ceed­ings on­go­ing when the new law comes in­to force shall be re­star­ted in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of this Code, tak­ing ac­count of the time that has elapsed, or, if re­ques­ted by the parties, con­cluded in ac­cord­ance with the pre­vi­ous pro­ced­ure, re­spect­ing the pre­vi­ous dead­lines.

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the trans­ition from the former pro­ced­ure for keep­ing the civil re­gister to the elec­tron­ic civil re­gister.

²The Con­fed­er­a­tion as­sumes the cap­it­al in­vest­ment costs up to an amount of 5 mil­lion francs.

¹As­so­ci­ations of per­sons and in­sti­tu­tions or found­a­tions that had ac­quired leg­al per­son­al­ity un­der the pre­vi­ous law, re­tain their per­son­al­ity un­der the new law even where they would not ac­quire leg­al per­son­al­ity un­der the new law.

²Ex­ist­ing leg­al en­tit­ies that re­quire to be entered in the pub­lic re­gister in ac­cord­ance with this Code must re­gister with­in five years of the com­mence­ment of the new law even if no pro­vi­sion was made for re­gis­tra­tion un­der the pre­vi­ous law and are no longer re­cog­nised as leg­al en­tit­ies on ex­piry of this time lim­it.

^2bisRe­li­gious found­a­tions and fam­ily found­a­tion that are not entered in the com­mer­cial re­gister when the Amend­ment of 12 Decem­ber 2014 (Art. 52 para. 2) comes in­to force con­tin­ue to be re­cog­nised as leg­al en­tit­ies. They must be entered in the com­mer­cial re­gister with­in five years of the Amend­ment com­ing in­to force. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall take the spe­cial cir­cum­stances of re­li­gious found­a­tions in­to ac­count when de­term­in­ing the re­quire­ments for entry in the com­mer­cial re­gister.³

³The status of the leg­al per­son­al­ity of all leg­al en­tit­ies is de­term­ined by the new law as soon as this Code comes in­to force.

The pro­vi­sions of the Amend­ment of 16 Decem­ber 2005² re­lat­ing to ac­count­ing and aud­it­ors ap­ply from first fin­an­cial year that be­gins on or after the com­mence­ment of this Code.

The new law ap­plies to pro­ceed­ings that are already pending when the amend­ment of 14 Decem­ber 2018 comes in­to force.

¹The new law ap­plies to mar­riage as soon as the Fed­er­al Act of 26 June 1998² has come in­to force.

²Mar­riages sub­ject to grounds for an­nul­ment un­der the pre­vi­ous law may, once the new law has come in­to force, only be an­nulled un­der the new law. However the peri­od that has lapsed be­fore this date will be taken in­to ac­count in de­term­in­ing time lim­its.

¹Di­vorce pro­ceed­ings are gov­erned by the new law as soon as the Fed­er­al Act of 26 June 1998² has come in­to force.

²Di­vorces that had taken full leg­al ef­fect un­der the pre­vi­ous law re­main val­id; the new pro­vi­sions on en­force­ment ap­ply to peri­od­ic main­ten­ance pay­ments or lump sum set­tle­ment that are fixed as an al­tern­at­ive to main­ten­ance or as a main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion.

³Any amend­ment of the di­vorce de­cree is car­ried out in ac­cord­ance with the pre­vi­ous law with the ex­cep­tion of the pro­vi­sions on chil­dren and pro­ced­ur­al mat­ters.

¹The new law ap­plies to di­vorce pro­ceed­ings that are pending on the com­mence­ment of the Fed­er­al Act of 26 June 1998² and which must be judged by a can­ton­al au­thor­ity.

²New leg­al re­quests that are re­quired due to the change in the ap­plic­able law are per­mit­ted; un­con­tested parts of the judg­ment re­main bind­ing, un­less they are ma­ter­i­ally so closely con­nec­ted with the re­quests that re­main to be judged that it makes sense to re­as­sess the en­tire case

³The Fed­er­al Su­preme Court de­cides in ac­cord­ance with the pre­vi­ous law in cases where the con­tested judg­ment was is­sued be­fore the com­mence­ment of the Fed­er­al Act of 26 June 1998; this also ap­plies if the case is re­ferred back to the can­ton­al au­thor­ity.

For di­vorce pro­ceed­ings that are pending on com­mence­ment of the Amend­ment of 19 Decem­ber 2003² and must be judged by a can­ton­al au­thor­ity, the peri­od of sep­ar­a­tion un­der the new law ap­plies.

¹The new law on oc­cu­pa­tion­al pen­sions on di­vorce ap­plies as soon as the amend­ment of 19 June 2015 comes in­to force.

² The new law ap­plies to di­vorce cases pending be­fore a can­ton­al court at the time when the amend­ment of 19 June 2015 comes in­to force.

³When the con­tested de­cision was made be­fore the amend­ment of 19 June 2015 came in­to force, the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court shall de­cide un­der pre­vi­ous law; this also ap­plies when a case is re­ferred back to the can­ton­al court.

¹If on di­vorce un­der the pre­vi­ous law the court, when de­cid­ing on the equit­able di­vi­sion of pen­sions, has awar­ded com­pens­a­tion to the en­titled spouse in the form of a pen­sion that ter­min­ates on the death of the li­able or the en­titled spouse, the en­titled spouse may, with­in one year of the amend­ment of 19 June 2015 com­ing in­to force, de­mand that he or she be gran­ted a life-long pen­sion in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 124a in­stead, should the li­able spouse draw an old-age pen­sion or an in­valid­ity pen­sion after the com­mence­ment of the stat­utory pen­sion age.

²In the case of de­cisions made abroad, jur­is­dic­tion is de­term­ined by Art­icle 64 of the Fed­er­al Act of 18 Decem­ber 1987² on In­ter­na­tion­al Private Law.

³Any pen­sion pay­ments already made un­der pre­vi­ous law are con­sidered part of the pen­sion awar­ded.

For the ef­fects of the mar­riage in gen­er­al, the new law ap­plies as soon as the Fed­er­al Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 1984 has come in­to force.

A spouse who changed his or her name on mar­riage be­fore the amend­ment to this Code of 30 Septem­ber 2011 came in­to force may de­clare to the civil re­gis­trar at any time that he or she wishes to use his or her name be­fore mar­riage again.

A Swiss wo­man who mar­ried un­der the pre­vi­ous law may with­in one year of the new law com­ing in­to force de­clare to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity of her former can­ton of ori­gin that she wishes to re­tain the cit­izen­ship that she held as a single wo­man.

The leg­al ef­fects on mar­it­al prop­erty of mar­riages con­trac­ted be­fore 1 Janu­ary 1912 are gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions of the Civil Code on the ap­plic­a­tion of the pre­vi­ous and new law that came in­to force on that day.

¹The new law ap­plies to mar­riages that ex­ist when the Fed­er­al Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 1984 comes in­to force, un­less oth­er­wise provided.

²The leg­al ef­fects on mar­it­al prop­erty of mar­riages that were dis­solved be­fore the Fed­er­al Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 1984 came in­to force are gov­erned by the pre­vi­ous law.

¹Spouses who have hitherto been sub­ject to a uni­on of prop­erty re­gime are now sub­ject to the reg­u­la­tions on par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty in re­la­tion to each oth­er and to third parties.

²The as­sets of each spouse be­come his or her own prop­erty or ac­quis­i­tions in ac­cord­ance with the reg­u­la­tions on par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty; sep­ar­ate prop­erty in terms of a mar­it­al agree­ment be­comes per­son­al as­sets.

³The wife re­claims the prop­erty she brought in­to the mar­riage that be­came her hus­band's prop­erty or makes a claim for com­pens­a­tion.

In the event of the hus­band's bank­ruptcy and the dis­traint of his as­sets, the pre­vi­ous pro­vi­sions on the wife's right to com­pens­a­tion in re­spect of prop­erty that she has brought in­to the mar­riage and which is no longer avail­able con­tin­ue to ap­ply for ten years after the new law comes in­to force.

¹After the new law comes in­to force, the di­vi­sion of mar­it­al prop­erty between the spouses is gov­erned for the en­tire dur­a­tion of the pre­vi­ous and the new stat­utory mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime by the reg­u­la­tions on par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty, un­less the spouses have com­pleted the di­vi­sion of mar­it­al prop­erty in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions on uni­on of prop­erty at the time when the new law comes in­to force.

²Be­fore the new law comes in­to force, either spouse may give writ­ten no­tice to the oth­er that the cur­rent mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime of uni­on of prop­erty must be dis­solved in ac­cord­ance with the pre­vi­ous law.

³If the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime is dis­solved be­cause an ac­tion filed be­fore the new law comes in­to force is up­held, the di­vi­sion of mar­it­al prop­erty is gov­erned by the pre­vi­ous law.

¹Spouses sub­ject to the stat­utory mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime of uni­on of prop­erty who have not changed this mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime by mar­it­al agree­ment may by one year at the latest after the new law comes in­to force elect to re­tain the uni­on of prop­erty re­gime by fil­ing a joint writ­ten de­clar­a­tion with the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gister of­fice at their dom­i­cile; the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gister of­fice shall main­tain a re­gister of such de­clar­a­tions that any­one may in­spect.

²The mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime may only be cited in op­pos­i­tion to a third party if that third party is or should be aware of it.

³The new reg­u­la­tions on the sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty ap­ply in fu­ture to the spouses' sep­ar­ate prop­erty.

In the case of a sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty es­tab­lished by op­er­a­tion of the law or by court or­der, the spouses are sub­ject to the new pro­vi­sions on the sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty.

¹If the spouses have entered in­to a mar­it­al agree­ment in ac­cord­ance with the Civil Code, this mar­it­al agree­ment con­tin­ues to ap­ply and their en­tire mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime con­tin­ues to be gov­erned by the pre­vi­ous law, sub­ject to the re­ser­va­tion of the pro­vi­sions of this Title on sep­ar­ate prop­erty, leg­al ef­fect on third parties and the con­trac­tu­al sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty.

²The new reg­u­la­tions on the sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty ap­ply in fu­ture to the spouses' sep­ar­ate prop­erty.

³Agree­ments on par­ti­cip­a­tion in a sur­plus or de­fi­cit in the case of a uni­on of prop­erty re­gime must not ad­versely af­fect the stat­utory in­her­it­ance en­ti­tle­ments of chil­dren who are not the com­mon is­sue of the spouses or those of the is­sue of such chil­dren.

¹The mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime may only be cited in op­pos­i­tion to a third party if that third party is or should be aware of it.

²If the mar­it­al prop­erty agree­ment has no leg­al ef­fect in re­la­tion to third parties, the pro­vi­sions on par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty ap­ply from now on in re­la­tion to such parties.

¹Spouses sub­ject to a uni­on of prop­erty re­gime who have changed this mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime by mar­it­al agree­ment may by one year at the latest after the new law comes in­to force elect to make their leg­al rights sub­ject to the new stat­utory mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime of par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty by fil­ing of a joint writ­ten de­clar­a­tion with mar­it­al prop­erty re­gister of­fice at their dom­i­cile.

²In this event, con­trac­tu­al par­ti­cip­a­tion in the sur­plus shall in fu­ture ap­ply to the total amount of the sur­plus of both spouses, un­less a mar­it­al prop­erty agree­ment provides oth­er­wise.

If the spouses agreed to a sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty un­der the pre­vi­ous law, they are sub­ject in fu­ture to the new pro­vi­sions on the sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty.

Mar­it­al agree­ments con­cluded be­fore the Fed­er­al Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 1984 comes in­to force but which are in­ten­ded to take ef­fect only un­der the new law do not re­quire the ap­prov­al of the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.

¹After the Fed­er­al Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 1984 comes in­to force, no fur­ther entries will be made in the re­gister of mar­it­al prop­erty.

²The right to in­spect the re­gister con­tin­ues to ap­ply.

If a sep­ar­a­tion of as­sets un­der the law of mar­it­al prop­erty in con­nec­tion with the new law com­ing in­to force causes ser­i­ous dif­fi­culties for a spouse who is li­able to pay debts or the re­place prop­erty that is due, he or she may re­quest ad­di­tion­al time to pay; the debt must be se­cured if this is jus­ti­fied by the cir­cum­stances.

If the mar­it­al prop­erty rights change when the Fed­er­al Act of 5 Oc­to­ber 1984 comes in­to force, the pro­vi­sions on the pro­tec­tion the cred­it­ors in the event of a change in the mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime gov­ern li­ab­il­ity.

¹As soon as this Code comes in­to force, the es­tab­lish­ment and ef­fects of the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship are gov­erned by the new law; the sur­name and the cit­izen­ship ac­quired un­der pre­vi­ous law are re­tained.

²Chil­dren who are sub­ject to par­ent­al au­thor­ity by op­er­a­tion of the new law but who are un­der guard­i­an­ship when the new law comes in­to force must be placed un­der par­ent­al au­thor­ity no later than one year after that date un­less the con­trary was ordered un­der the pro­vi­sions on the with­draw­al of par­ent­al of au­thor­ity.

³A trans­fer or with­draw­al of par­ent­al au­thor­ity of­fi­cially ordered un­der the pre­vi­ous law re­mains ef­fect­ive after the new law comes in­to force.

⁴When the Amend­ment of 21 June 2013 comes in­to force, if par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity is as­signed to only one par­ent, the oth­er par­ent may with­in one year of this Amend­ment com­ing in­to force re­quest the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity to or­der joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity. Art­icle 298b ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.²

⁵A par­ent whose par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity is re­voked on di­vorce may file a re­quest with the com­pet­ent court only if the di­vorce was de­creed less than five years be­fore the Amend­ment of 21 June 2013 comes in­to force.³

¹An ad­op­tion pro­nounced be­fore the new pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 30 June 1972 on the Amend­ment of the Swiss Civil Code come in­to force con­tin­ues to be gov­erned by the law that came in­to force on 1 Janu­ary 1912²; con­sents val­idly giv­en in ac­cord­ance with this law re­main ef­fect­ive in every case.

²Per­sons who are not yet 20 years old when the Fed­er­al Act of 7 Oc­to­ber 1994 comes in­to force may still be ad­op­ted in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions on minor­ity after at­tain­ing ma­jor­ity provided the ap­plic­a­tion is filed with­in two years of the Fed­er­al Act com­ing in­to force and of their 20^th birth­day.³

The new law ap­plies to ad­op­tion pro­ced­ures pending at the time the amend­ment of 17 June 2016 comes in­to force.

The pro­vi­sions of the amend­ment of 17 June 2016 on the con­fid­en­ti­al­ity of ad­op­tion in­form­a­tion, on in­form­a­tion about the bio­lo­gic­al par­ents and their dir­ect des­cend­ants and on the pos­sib­il­ity of ar­ran­ging con­tact between the bio­lo­gic­al par­ents and the child also ap­ply to ad­op­tions which are gran­ted pri­or to the amend­ment com­ing in­to force or which are pending at the time it comes in­to force.

The con­test­ing of a de­clar­a­tion of le­git­im­acy made un­der the pre­vi­ous law is gov­erned by ana­logy by the pro­vi­sions of the new laws on the con­test­ing of re­cog­ni­tion fol­low­ing the par­ents' mar­riage.

¹Ac­tions pending when the new law comes in­to force are judged in ac­cord­ance with the new law.

²The ef­fects un­til the new law comes in­to force are de­term­ined by the pre­vi­ous law.

¹If a pe­cu­ni­ary ob­lig­a­tion on the fath­er's part is es­tab­lished by court de­cision or by con­tract be­fore the new law comes in­to force, and if the child has not yet reached the age of ten when the new law comes in­to force, the child may with­in two years bring an ac­tion un­der the pro­vi­sions of the new law to have the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship de­clared.

²If the De­fend­ant proves that he or she is not the fath­er or is less likely to be the fath­er than an­oth­er per­son, the right to claim fu­ture main­ten­ance lapses.

Any per­son who at­tains ma­jor­ity due to the Fed­er­al Act of 7 Oc­to­ber 1994 com­ing in­to force may in any case file an ac­tion with­in one year to de­clare or chal­lenge the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship.

1. Ex­ist­ing main­ten­ance titles

The child may ap­ply for the re­vi­sion of any main­ten­ance pay­ments set in an ap­proved main­ten­ance agree­ment or in a de­cision be­fore the amend­ment of 20 March 2015 came in­to force. If they were set at the same time as main­ten­ance pay­ments to one of the par­ents, pay­ments shall only be re­vised if there has been a sub­stan­tial change in cir­cum­stances.

Art. 13c^bis2

¹The new le­gis­la­tion ap­plies to pro­ceed­ings that are pending at the time of the amend­ment of 20 March 2015 com­ing in­to force.

²When the con­tested de­cision was made be­fore the amend­ment of 20 March 2015 came in­to force, the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court shall de­cide un­der the pre­vi­ous law; this also ap­plies when a case is re­ferred back to the can­ton­al court.

¹If after the amend­ment to this Code of 30 Septem­ber 2011 comes in­to force the par­ents on the basis of a de­clar­a­tion un­der Art­icle 8a of this Title no longer have the same sur­name, they may de­clare with­in one year of the new law com­ing in­to force that their chil­dren will take the sur­name be­fore mar­riage of the par­ent who made the de­clar­a­tion.

²If the par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity of a child of par­ents who are not mar­ried to each oth­er is trans­ferred to both par­ents or the fath­er alone be­fore the amend­ment to this Code of 30 Septem­ber 2011 comes in­to force, the de­clar­a­tion provided for in Art­icle 270a para­graphs 2 and 3 may be made with­in one year of the new law com­ing in­to force.

³In ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 270b, this shall be sub­ject to the child's con­sent.

¹The new law gov­erns adult pro­tec­tion as soon as the Amend­ment of 19 Decem­ber 2008² comes in­to force.

²Per­sons who have been made wards of court un­der the pre­vi­ous law shall be made sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship un­der the new law. The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall ad­apt to the new law as soon as pos­sible. Un­less the au­thor­ity has de­cided oth­er­wise in the case of ex­ten­ded par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, par­ents are ex­empt from the ob­lig­a­tion to pre­pare an in­vent­ory, re­port and file ac­counts reg­u­larly and to ob­tain con­sent for cer­tain trans­ac­tions.

³Oth­er meas­ures ordered un­der the pre­vi­ous law cease to ap­ply three years after the Amend­ment of 19 Decem­ber 2008 comes in­to force un­less the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity trans­forms them in­to a meas­ure un­der the new law.

⁴Where a doc­tor based on Art­icle 397b para­graph 2 in its ver­sion of 1 Janu­ary 1981³ ordered the care-re­lated de­ten­tion of a men­tally ill per­son, this meas­ure shall con­tin­ue to ap­ply. The rel­ev­ant in­sti­tu­tion shall no­ti­fy the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity six months at the latest after the new law comes in­to force wheth­er it re­garded the re­quire­ments for hos­pit­al­isa­tion to be met. The adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall carry out the re­quired en­quir­ies in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions on reg­u­lar re­view and if ap­plic­able con­firm the hos­pit­al­isa­tion de­cision.

¹Pending pro­ceed­ings shall be con­tin­ued by the new com­pet­ent au­thor­ity after the Amend­ment of 19 Decem­ber 2008² comes in­to force.

²The new pro­ced­ur­al law ap­plies.

³The au­thor­ity shall de­cide wheth­er and to what ex­tent the pre­vi­ous pro­ceed­ings re­quire to be amended.

¹The suc­ces­sion rights and the re­lated and in­sep­ar­able ef­fects on mar­it­al prop­erty un­der can­ton­al law of the death of a fath­er, a moth­er or a spouse are de­term­ined, provided the de­ceased dies be­fore this Code comes in­to force, by the pre­vi­ous law.

²The fore­go­ing ap­plies both to heirs and to suc­ces­sion.

¹The mak­ing or re­voc­a­tion of a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion car­ried out be­fore this Code comes in­to force, if done by a per­son sub­sequently de­ceased who had test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city un­der the law that ap­plied at the time, may not be con­tested on the grounds that the de­ceased died fol­low­ing the com­mence­ment of the new law and would not have had test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city un­der its pro­vi­sions.

²A test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion may not be con­tested due to a form­al de­fect if it com­plies with the pro­vi­sions on form that ap­plied when it was made or at the time of death.

³The con­test­ing of a dis­pos­i­tion on the grounds that the test­at­or ex­ceeded his or her test­a­ment­ary free­dom or due to the nature of the dis­pos­i­tion is gov­erned in the case of all test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tions by the pro­vi­sions of the new law if the de­ceased died after the com­mence­ment of this Code.

¹Rights in rem ex­ist­ing when this Code comes in­to force con­tin­ue to be re­cog­nised un­der the new law sub­ject to the re­ser­va­tion of the reg­u­la­tions on the land re­gister.

²However, the scope of rights of own­er­ship and re­stric­ted rights in rem is sub­ject to the new law after this Code comes in­to force un­less the Code provides oth­er­wise.

³Rights that can no longer be cre­ated un­der the new law re­main sub­ject to the pre­vi­ous law.

¹Rights to cre­ate a right in rem that were es­tab­lished be­fore this Code comes in­to force are re­cog­nised as val­id provided they cor­res­pond to the form re­quired by the former or the new law.

²The or­din­ance on main­tain­ing the land re­gister de­term­ines what doc­u­ment­ary proof is re­quired for the re­gis­tra­tion of such rights.

³The scope of a right in rem es­tab­lished be­fore this Code comes in­to force by a leg­al trans­ac­tion re­mains re­cog­nised un­der the new law, provided it is com­pat­ible with the same.

¹Ad­verse pos­ses­sion is gov­erned by the new law after this Code comes in­to force.

²If however ad­verse pos­ses­sion re­cog­nised un­der the new law has be­gun un­der the pre­vi­ous law, the time that elapsed be­fore this Code comes in­to force is taken in­to ac­count in the cal­cu­lat­ing the peri­od of ad­verse pos­ses­sion.

¹Ex­ist­ing rights of own­er­ship in re­la­tion to trees on an­oth­er per­son's land con­tin­ue to be re­cog­nised un­der can­ton­al law.

²The can­tons shall have the power to lim­it or re­voke these con­di­tions.

Con­domin­i­um gov­erned by the former can­ton­al law is sub­ject to the new pro­vi­sions of this Code even if the storeys or parts of storeys are not di­vided in­to self-con­tained dwell­ings or busi­ness units.

¹The can­tons may also make con­domin­i­um re­cor­ded in the land re­gister in forms that ac­cord with the law that came in­to force on 1 Janu­ary 1912 sub­ject to the new reg­u­la­tions on con­domin­i­um.

²The new law be­comes ef­fect­ive when the cor­res­pond­ing amend­ment is made to the entries in the land re­gister.

In or­der to make the con­ver­ted con­domin­i­um sub­ject to the new reg­u­la­tions and to re­gister ex­ist­ing con­domin­i­um, the can­tons may or­der the cor­rec­tion of the land re­gisters and is­sue spe­cial pro­ced­ur­al reg­u­la­tions for this pur­pose.

¹ The ease­ments cre­ated be­fore this Code comes in­to force re­main val­id fol­low­ing the in­tro­duc­tion of the land re­gister even if not re­gistered, but un­til re­gistered may not be en­forced against third parties act­ing in good faith.

²Ob­lig­a­tions an­cil­lary to ease­ments that were es­tab­lished be­fore the amend­ment of 11 Decem­ber 2009¹ came in­to force and which are based solely on land re­gister sup­port­ing doc­u­ments may con­tin­ue to be cited in op­pos­i­tion to third parties who rely on the land re­gister in good faith.²

¹Doc­u­ments of title ex­ist­ing when this Code comes in­to force re­main in force without hav­ing to be ad­ap­ted to the new law.

²The can­tons have the right to re­quire new ver­sions of ex­ist­ing doc­u­ments of title to be drawn up on the basis of the new law with­in spe­cif­ic time lim­its.

¹After this Code comes in­to force, new mort­gage rights may only be cre­ated in the forms re­cog­nised herein.

² Un­til the in­tro­duc­tion of the land re­gister, the pre­vi­ous can­ton­al leg­al forms for their cre­ation re­main val­id.

¹The re­pay­ment and modi­fic­a­tion the title, re­lease from li­ab­il­ity un­der a li­en and such­like are sub­ject to the new pro­vi­sions fol­low­ing the com­mence­ment of the new law.

²However, un­til the in­tro­duc­tion of the land re­gister, the forms are gov­erned by can­ton­al law.

¹In the case of all mort­gage rights, the ex­tent of li­ab­il­ity un­der the li­en is de­term­ined by the new law.

²However, if by vir­tue of a spe­cial agree­ment the cred­it­or has val­idly re­ceived cer­tain ob­jects with the prop­erty pledged, the li­en con­tin­ues to ap­ply to these ob­jects even if they could not be pledged un­der the new law.

¹The rights and ob­lig­a­tions of the cred­it­or and of the debt­or in re­la­tion to the con­trac­tu­al ef­fect of li­ens ex­ist­ing when this Code comes in­to force are gov­erned by the pre­vi­ous law.

²In re­la­tion to ef­fects that arise by op­er­a­tion of the law which can­not be mod­i­fied con­trac­tu­ally, the new law also ap­plies to ex­ist­ing li­ens.

³If the li­en ap­plies to two or more par­cels of land, li­ab­il­ity un­der the li­en con­tin­ues to be gov­erned by the pre­vi­ous law.

The rights of the li­en cred­it­or dur­ing the ex­ist­ing leg­al re­la­tion­ship, such as rights to se­cur­ity, and the rights of the debt­or are gov­erned by the new law in re­la­tion to all li­ens from the time at which this Code comes in­to force.

For li­ens ex­ist­ing when this Code comes in­to force, the ter­min­a­tion of the se­cured debts and the trans­fer the doc­u­ment of title are gov­erned by the pre­vi­ous law, sub­ject to the re­ser­va­tion of the man­dat­ory pro­vi­sions of the new law.

¹Un­til the in­tro­duc­tion of the land re­gister, the rank­ing of li­ens is gov­erned by the pre­vi­ous law.

²Fol­low­ing the in­tro­duc­tion of the land re­gister, the rank­ing of cred­it­ors is gov­erned by the land re­gister law con­tained in this Code.

¹In re­la­tion to a fixed rank­ing po­s­i­tion or the right of a cred­it­or to claim a va­cant po­s­i­tion or an ad­vance­ment in rank­ing, the new law ap­plies on the in­tro­duc­tion of the land re­gister and in every case from five years after this Code comes in­to force, sub­ject to the re­ser­va­tion of cred­it­ors' ex­ist­ing spe­cial claims.

²The can­tons may en­act fur­ther trans­ition­al pro­vi­sions.¹